Chapter 03: New First Impressions

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Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi

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"So let me get this straight," Nabiki said as she watched Kasumi patch up Haruka and Ranma, who had stumbled in just before dinner had been finished. Nodoka had asked Akane to help set the table while letting Kasumi, whose first aid skill was the best in the house, bandaged up the bruised and grinning duo.

"You two meet, for the first time in years apparently, and the first thing you do is beat the crap out of each other?" Ranma's sheepish nod and Haruka eying him like she was waiting for the perfect time to restart the fight was all the answer she needed. Nabiki sighed and shook her head, "How do you two even know each other?"

"I can answer that," Genma said as he and Soun wandered into the dining room, "It was about the time when Ranma was nine and we were traveling. We ended up passing through Kyoto. I remembered that your aunt and her husband were living there and stopped by to check in on them and ask if we could stay the night."

"And I remember that Aunt Kimi scared the piss out of ya Pops, especially when we woke her up with our morning sparing." Ranma snickered as he held his arm out to allow Kasumi to finish her work.

"With good reason!" Genma grumped as Soun whimpered, both remembering the beatings give to them by Soun's younger sister, "Even if she never practiced the Art, Kimiko had a vicious streak that kept the gangs that we tangled with from ever going after her…"

Haruka grinned, her parents had told her about this part of her mother's life before, thinking that she would grow out of her current attitude like her mother had. So far they had no such luck.

"Anyways, we ended up staying for close to a week, and Haruka had been sparring with Ranma every day at that point. She didn't like that someone two years younger than her was matching her training easily." Genma said as he remembered each sparring match the two had. Haruka's greater strength and longer reach had been canceled out by Ranma's longer period of training. The two had been pretty evenly matched all those years ago, but Genma was sure that Ranma had been holding back against her. He had been holding back against everyone after Saffron.

"Still doesn't explain why the last time I saw you two, you were running away from mother and a small mob of our security team." Haruka sniped, a little of her attitude coming from the stinging sensation of the alcohol swab Kasumi was using, the rest from resentment towards the man that had carried off one of her best friends.

"I may have brought up the pledge that me and your uncle made," Genma said as everyone but Soun and Haruka glared at him. Soun merely nodded, know what his friend had been thinking and Haruka stared blankly in confusion.

"Well Haruka," Soun broke in, "Genma and I made a pledge not long after Kasumi was born that we would unite the Tendo and Saotome Schools of Anything Goes Martial Arts through the marriage of our children. Luckily Genma had a son while I had three beautiful daughters. My friend here probably thought 'What if none of them get along?' He most likely brought the subject up to your parents as a backup plan due to your close friendship at such a young age. It would have been acceptable for you to be included as long as your parents agreed, but your mother most likely reacted in a negative way as she was, and still is, a romantic."

Haruka grumped, "I wouldn't call us friends exactly. And I bet she was wishing they taken the offer now."

Soun chuckled as he shook his head, "Not really Haruka, I spoke with them a little after you called. They were surprised since you and this Michiru seemed to be so deeply in love. When I brought up the subject they said it was up to you, but not to force it since this could be just a fight and you two need some time apart."

Soun's mumbled 'and I'm terrified that Kimiko would kill me if I forced it,' was mostly ignored as Haruka made her opinion of the offer known.

"He's nice guy, but he's not really my type."

Nabiki saw a chance for amusement and took it, if only because he never had to deal with a lesbian. With a smile, she picked up a glass of water, "Well Haruka, what about now?"

Haruka looked at her cousin in confusion as she sloshed the water out of the cup and splashed Ranma in the face. Haruka's confusion went straight to panic as she tried not to reach for her henshin pen when Ranma shrank down into a redhaired girl.

"What did you do that for Nabiki!"

"She would have found out anyways Ranma, it's better to get it out of the way now." Akane said with a sweet smile on her face, inwardly laughing at both Ranma's indignation and Haruka's panic.

"Oh my. Ranma please hold still," Kasumi said as she moved back to the pigtailed girl. As she began adjusting the bandages, Haruka was wondering when Sestuna would pop in and yell surprise, or attack the red-haired girl. Either one would work.

"Did Ranma just…" Haruka managed as an older woman came from the kitchen with part of dinner.

When she saw the damp girl mumbling about being fussed over by Kasumi, she sighed and smiled, "I guess my daughter is joining us for the night then?"

As Ranma blushed, Nabiki leaned in, "Don't worry, this is normal. It's still Ranma, just in a girl body. For 5000 Yen I can tell you the whole story after dinner."

Haruka could feel the sweat drop form on the back of her head as she remembered Nabiki's mercenary ways, "No thanks, I'll ask him… her…. Ranma! I'll ask Ranma later."

Nabiki shrugged as she retrieved her chopsticks and waited for Nodoka to sit down, "Suit yourself."

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Haruka sat in the empty living room while everyone started to bed down. Ranma, who was still in female form, had headed out to the dojo where she had been sleeping, while mostly everyone else headed up stairs. Soun had pulled out a bed roll for her and set it in the dojo, saying that it was more than large enough for her and Ranma to share for the night before he had moved down the hall to his room.

Haruka had spoken with Ranma after dinner, with some interjections from her cousins, and honestly thought that Ranma's life could rank up there with hers on the weird shit meter with just what he put up with on a daily basis. If it was the real Ranma, that is.

Haruka flipped open her phone and thumbed through her contact list, hoping that Sestuna wasn't drunk due to the day's events.

The phone rang a few times before Sestuna answer, screaming frantically, "Where are you, I can't find you anywhere! I can't even track your location with the gates!"

"Whoa, where did this come from?" Haruka asked as she brought the phone back to her ear, "I'm at my uncle's house in Nermia. Anyways, I…"

"Nermia?! Are you stupid or just plain crazy?" Sestuna roared, "That place is so ripe with chaos that not even youma last long there!"

"Will you shut up and listen!?" Haruka roared before slapping a hand over her mouth, thinking she might of woken someone up. When now one yelled back, she spoke again, softer this time, "Look, I just found out that a childhood friend is staying here with his parents as well, and he's got this weird.. condition. I want you to check to see if it's really him of if he's been replaced."

The silence on the other end of the phone was not one of looking into the gate to check for her, no it conveyed a feeling of resignation ad horror, "…Is your uncle Soun Tendo?"

"Yes?" Haruka answered, unsure what the Guardian of Pluto was asking.

"And your friend is Ranma Saotome?"

"Yes?"

"The turning into a girl thing is normal for him, as is his tendency to draw chaos in towards himself." Sestuna said, "Now that we have the perfect opportunity, I want you to keep an eye on him. If everything goes like I want it too, he will be able to help us. I just need to run it by the princess…"

Haruka was confused, she had no idea what her housemate was going on about, "Uh, Sestuna?"

"Congratulations, Sailor Uranus, your new assignment is to watch and observe how one Ranma Saotome keeps the chaos kept in one place like he does. Have fun." The line went dead as Sestuna hung up. Haruka looked at the phone and sighed, at least Ranma was still the same person she knew as a child. At least according to Sestuna. As she went to change into her sleepwear, a thought hit her, "Did I just get put on Babysitting Duty?"

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Ranma woke to the giggling of a certain Tendo and the click of camera shutters. She tried to tune it out and go back to sleep, mainly because after Nodoka had moved in she had forbidden Genma from waking Ranma early on weekends and breaks, Ranma had gotten use to sleeping in. besides, it felt so nice to snuggle up on her bedroll. It felt nice and warm, almost as if she was cuddling with someone taller than…

Ranma's brain kicked into full gear at that though. There was a person currently cuddling with her in bed. This Person was taller than her. The general shape of the body told her the person was female, but the breasts were too small to be Shampoo. Ukyo wouldn't sneak into her bed, she got too embarrassed to do so, and she didn't have any other girls wanting to do so. Opening her eyes and slowly turning her head, Ranma came face to face with Haruka, who was slowly waking up herself.

Haruka, on the other hand, did not have a machine like mind that responded to situations, such as being cuddled up to someone she wasn't supposed to be, that would end in a savage beating and maybe a one way trip on Air Akane. She looked around blearily as the person she had been spooning had disappeared. The outright laughter of a girl and the indignant shriek of another did bring her further back into the land of the living. Looking around, She saw that she had rolled over to Ranma's futon, Nabiki was wheezing from how hard she had been laughing, and Ranma was clinging to the rafters above her. Remembering what Sestuna had said last night, Haruka shrugged. She still wasn't sure if Michiru had truly broken up with her, so she would stick to harmless teasing. Situations like this were apparently normal for this ward anyways.

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Ranma flushed redder than his girl-form's hair as the other two Tendo sisters shared Nabiki's sentiment about how she had found them. Akane hadn't even gotten angry, she just went straight into a giggle fit. Kasumi just smiled at him, but he could see the amusement in her eyes. And Haruka's response, when she was asked, in the middle of breakfast?

"I guess it's because I'm used to sleeping with a nice curvy girl next to me every night." Haruka said as she stretched, missing the tightening around Nodoka's eyes.

"I can trust that you won't try anything, unseemly with my son's girl-form?" Nodoka asked, "He is, after all, engaged."

Haruka shook her head, "No, until I'm sure that Michiru really doesn't want anything to do with me, I'm not going to cheat. Though I do want to see how red I can get Ranma to go."

"I thought you didn't like men." Ranma snapped as he pulled his bowl closer to fend of his father's wandering chopsticks.

"It's not that I don't like men, I just haven't found one that interested me yet. I just prefer women over men," Haruka said as she set her coffee cup down, fully awake now, "But I do have to admit, you're a real catch in either form."

Ranma quickly finished his food and bounced out of the house and over the wall within a minute. Nabiki smirked as Haruka got up to go after him, "Don't worry about it, Ranma's just really embarrassed. Give him an hour or two for him to find a fight and he'll be right back to normal."

Haruka grinned as she went out to where he bike was, "Well I don't want to miss that, he was holding back on me yesterday, and I don't like it when people do that without an extremely good reason."

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Ranma sat in the park as he fumed. Kuno was still in recovery from the last beating, Mousse was currently locked in a cage in his duck form as punishment for groping Shampoo, and the normal random challengers he had weren't showing up. If he wanted a good fight…

"Where the hell am I now?"

…All he needed to do was wander around until Ryoga showed up.

"Hey pork butt! Long time no see!" Ranma called out as he turned to the lost boy. Ryoga was the only one that could keep up with him at the moment, therefore the only one he could have a good spar with.

"Ranma? I'm not in Kyoto, am I?" Ryoga asked. Over the recent months, he had come to the conclusion that Ranma was the only real friend he had, and the others were as a result of Ranma being around.

"Not even close," Ranma said as he slipped into a loose stance, "I could use a good fight, how about you?"

Roga dropped his backpack, letting hit the ground with a small thud as he pulled his umbrella off of the top, "You seem stressed, something happen?"

"Akane's cousin and one of my old friends showed up last night and I discovered it's going to be hard to be around her."

Ryoga's mind worked through the workings of Nermia, which dictated the natures of those whom showed up and what kind of troubles they would give Ranma, "Lesbian?"

"She says she prefers women but said I looked good either way."

"Embarassed?"

"I woke up with her spooning my girl-form while Nabiki was taking pictures."

Ryoga paused before he went red, "On three?"

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Haruka was cruising down the roads looking for Ranma. She had asked around, mainly because she didn't trust free information given out by Nabiki. She knew her cousin, and she did not want to be part of her latest moneymaking scheme/amusement. Apparently, Ranma's fights were on the same level with the Inner Scouts when it came to the everyday challengers. Loud and destructive. When he was fighting a regular, they added that it was even louder, flashy, and even more destructive.

Considering she saw a tree suddenly lift upwards before falling sideways and out of sight, she had a pretty good idea of where Ranma was. What she didn't like was the roar and sickly energy that appeared almost immediately after the tree fell that just screamed Youma. She quickly pulled into an alley and hid her bike before transforming. She wasn't about to let a friend die.

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Ranma and Ryoga had been beating on each other in a pure slugfest, not really caring about any fancy techniques and just enjoying the fight. They never noticed the figure that had been lurking in the forest, watching them. It was looking for any human with high levels of energy, and it had stumbled across these two. They were positively glowing with it in the creatures eyes, but it thought it would have the advantage anyways. It decided to cut in.

Ranma and Ryoga barely noticed the sounds of a tree being ripped from the ground as they focused on trying to break the hold they had on the other fighter. As the tree was swung sideways, Ranma tripped Ryoga and forced them to both roll under the tree as it sailed over head.

"All right who has the… Shit" Ranma said as he caught a glimpse of the figure coming out of the trees," Ryoga, we got company."

Ryoga looked up from where he was lying and sighed. An Oni-like youma was making its way through the trees towards them, energy gathering in its single eye, "What are you worried about, it's not that strong."

"Not what I'm worried about," Ranma said as he felt something else now that he was paying attention, "One of those magical girls is closing in fast."

"Worry about her later," Ryoga said as he stood, "Dodge now."

The youma roared as it fired the energy from its eye in a condensed beam of energy. That was it's third, and last mistake. The first was targeting the boys and the second was to follow through by throwing a tree at them. What followed was enough to turn anyone's stomach. And unfortunately for her, Sailor Uranus saw everything that followed.

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Uranus watched in growing horror as she watched Ranma and the boy he had presumably been fighting systematically pick the youma apart. She had arrived when it had fired the eye-beam, causing the two boys to dodge in opposite directions. They moved faster than the youma could follow as it tried to sweep the beam after Ranma, only for the bandanna wearing boy to close in on the side, swinging the umbrella he had grabbed.

The umbrella hit the youma's arm with a sickening crunch of metal on bone, causing her to pale at the sound. The boy's strength became apparent when he followed through on the swing to through the youma, who was twice as tall and at least several times heavier than him, straight at Ranma. Ranma then proved how much he had held back against her when he sent the youma flying back the way he came with a spin kick. The other boy swung his umbrella downwards as he caved in the youma's chest. After a few moments, the two turned away.

"Think that was enough?" the other boy asked as rotated his shoulder. The youma growled as it pushed itself up, it's wounds knitting together at a quick rate.

"Apparently not."

"How should we handle this?"

"Hit it harder?"

"Really?

"Are you telling me that you're not having fun batting this tub of lard around?"

"Just shut up and fight."

The interaction between the two had thrown Uranus completely. Sure this was a low level youma that she could have taken out on her own with the right tactics, but these two were beating on it as stress relief. They could have easily taken it out at any time, but they were just playing with it. After ten minutes of having its bone repeatedly broken and regenerated, the youma was begging for mercy or death, which ever came first. When it started that, Ranma swung his hand downwards and bisected the youma from head to groin.

As the two halves fell apart, Ranma sighed, "Well at least it won't be hurting anyone else. Who summoned it?"

"Happosai? It seemed focused on us and after that beating we gave him for that one panty raid…"

"You're right, it is just the thing he would do." Ranma said, "You want to continue the fight or you good?"

"I'm good, though I could use something to eat."

"What about the magical girl you sensed?"

"Well, she's not attacking use so we should be good."

The two boys wandered away after the other one picked up the backpack that had been sitting unnoticed. All Uranus could do was watch as she tried to steady herself and wonder what kind of monsters these two were because she could tell that they were still holding back.